


Breathing is Optional

by Adohug



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: F/F, Gen, Vampire AU, have fun, if the ending feels weird its because i wanted this done before halloween, ive been working on this for over a month
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 07:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21240320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adohug/pseuds/Adohug
Summary: “Lost?” A voice breaks through her downward spiral, and Emma turns towards it to be greeted by someone with bright green hair and glasses. “I’m a native; where do you need to get to?”or: i got this idea a while back and i didnt get every idea in but its complete enough right nowor or: vampire au





	Breathing is Optional

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! this is my halloween fic

Gran’s going to kill her. 

Three minutes into Indianapolis Pride and Emma manages to lose sight of her, Greg, _and_ the group she was following. Her phone is rapidly dying because Greg hogged the charging cord so she couldn’t open Maps, leaving her totally, helplessly—

“Lost?” A voice breaks through her downward spiral, and Emma turns towards it to be greeted by someone with bright green hair and glasses. “I’m a native; where do you need to get to?”

She feels relieved that someone noticed. “I'm supposed to meet my family at a McDonalds on Fifth avenue?”

The stranger smiles. “I can totally get you there, if you want?”

“Please. I have no idea where I am.”

“Follow me, then.” The stranger turns and waits for Emma to catch up before talking again. “My name’s Ash, by the way. They/them.”

“Emma, she/her. Thank you so much for this; if I hadn’t grown up in the town I live in, I wouldn’t know how to get from one side to the other.”

Ash laughs. “Yeah, you sorta need a sense of direction to live in the city. This way; it’s faster.” They start down a slightly smaller street, and Emma follows. “So, what brings you to the city?”

“The pride parade, if you couldn’t tell.” She gestures to her lesbian pin and obvious-butchness of her outfit. They look and give her a once over, eyes lingering somewhere for a moment before meeting her eyes.

“Oh, I could tell, but I didn’t want to assume anything.” They turn down another, smaller street. “I can’t believe no one else stopped to help a pretty girl like you.”

Through her blush, Emma responds. “I don’t think my girlfriend will want to hear about some other girl or person stopping to help me while I was lost in the city.”

“Girlfriend, noted,” Ash nods, prompting Emma to huff out a breath in relief. “Why isn’t she here with you? Not out?”

She shakes her head, following them down — okay, this one’s an alley. “Her mom…”

They make a noise of agreement. “I hear ya; my dad was terrible. It bothered him less after a while, though.”

“Yeah…” Emma trails off, looking around. “Look, Ash, I don’t want to be rude, but I just met you, and I’m not sure if Fifth avenue looks like this.”

“It doesn’t.” Their voice is suddenly behind her, making Emma jump. “I just had to take a pitstop, first.”

Emma’s heart rate increases along with her breath rate. “What arrr_raaaaAAA_-” 

————————

Emma awakens to a light in her eyes, which she hisses at and rolls away from. As she settles back into her mound of pillows, her brain starts sluggishly turning. Her bed has fewer pillows than this. Her window doesn’t let light in at that angle.

This isn’t her room.

Her eyes fly open as she bolts upright, head immediately protesting from the sudden movement. She hisses again, screwing her eyes shut and rubbing her temples, bumping the arms to her glasses with her fingers. Okay, no vision right now; use other feelings.

She’s in a strange room, still wearing her glasses and her clothes from earlier. Her bag is… not on her, and neither is her phone.

“You’re finally awake!” Emma turns her head, _slowly_, towards the voice, registering it as Ash’s voice. “That took longer than usual.” She feels a twinge of pain by her collarbone.

“That’ll be the diabetes,” she quips, unthinking. 

She hears them laugh; her eyes are still closed. “Yeah, that won’t be a problem anymore.”

“Huh.” Brain still chugging.

Wait.

“What?”

Emma finally squints one eye open and looks around, eyes still sensitive. She was right about all of the pillows; there might not be a mattress under all of them. She can see her bag by her feet, and can see Ash in a chair across the room.

“Your phone is charging by your left elbow, by the way. And I didn’t touch your bag other than taking it off.” They ignore her question, looking way too casual about all of this. 

Emma is having none of it; her brain’s all caught up. “What? Where are we? What happened to me?” 

They stick their tongue out. “Fine, be confused.” They sound joking. “We’re actually on Fifth avenue; McDonalds is across the street. What happened is that I got hungry.”

“What does getting hungry have to do with- ow, why does-”

“You have a girlfriend.” They stop her. “I was just going to feed, but I’m one of the few who still have a conscious, so I turned you.”

“Turn me? Feed? Ash, what?” At this point, she can open her eyes fully, and is just rubbing the sore spot on her collarbone.

Ash makes jazz hands before speaking. “You’re a vampire! Welcome to the rest of your unlife!”

————————

After Emma got a crash course on what her life (er, unlife?) is going to be from now on, Ash walked her to the McDonalds (“Yes, you can go into sunlight, but you’re way more likely to sunburn now.” “I’m a paper plate, I burn anyways.” “Invest in SPF 100.”) and left. Greg and Gran had given her some odd looks and question about why she was late, but she played them off (“My phone died and I had to charge it”).

Now, back in her room in Edgewater, Emma is freaking the fuck out.

She doesn’t have a heartbeat, so her panic is quieter than normal; no pounding in her ears. She’s still breathing (thank god for that habit) and, by extension, hyperventilating, and she does another thing her instincts say to do: call Alyssa.

She picks up on the second ring like always, worry lacing her tone. “You never call me unless you’re freaking out, are you okay?”

Against every impulse in her body, she mumbles out a “yes” to her girlfriend. Alyssa sees right through it.

“No, you’re not; unlock your window, I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” She hangs up, leaving her to her panic again.

Seventeen minutes and forty-three seconds later, Alyssa Greene is hanging from the drainpipe outside of Emma Nolan’s window, a more common occurrence than most people in Edgewater would guess. When she got through the window, she didn’t even attempt to clean herself up before asking “touch or no touch?”

It was a system Emma had figured out with Greg when she first moved in; her panic and anxiety attacks were more often back then, and she’d flip-flop between needing every inch of her touched and “If you don’t stand on the other side of a closed door while sitting on your hands this will only get worse,” so Greg had started asking which one she needed. Alyssa, after the first few attacks, had picked up the habit quickly.

Despite every cell in her body aching to be held, she shakes her head. “No touch,” she manages.

Alyssa nods, leaning against the windowsill. “Have you been breathing?” Emma nods. “Is it working?” Shake. “Am I helping?” Nod. “Distraction?” Nod.

She launches into a long-winded recollection of her day without Emma which she barely listens to. She just lets the words wash over her, the familiar lilts and jumps of her girlfriend’s voice helping her mind stop racing. She stares at her, smooth tan skin and twig-filled curly hair. Her eyes wander down to her casual outfit of some jeans and a t-shirt, gaze lingering on her neck.

She’s trailed many kisses down that throat, but it only now occurs to her how easy it would be to bite down, let her teeth break the skin--

Emma forces her train of thought to change as she looks back up at Alyssa’s eyes, staring at her. “How are we feeling?”

Emma’s always been an instinctual, follow-your-gut kind of person. When she raced Nick up a wall in second grade to see who was faster (she was), it was a gut feeling. When she told Kaylee that boys were gross and that she never wanted to kiss a boy in fifth grade, that was a gut feeling. When she came out to her parents, that was a gut feeling.

The gut feeling that comes to her on a warm June evening makes her swallow and say to her girlfriend, “I fucked up.”

————————

All in all, being a vampire isn’t very different than being human, for Emma. She didn’t need to eat (though she still could), so she skips breakfast and lunch (Alyssa gets her packed lunches) and eats dinner with Gran and Greg. 

She was already pale, so the no-blood-pumping paleness just makes her look like she spends every available minute inside (which she does). She takes to wearing different hats in an attempt to keep her neck safe from burning, with varying success (and a lot of getting dragged to a private place by Alyssa).

Any other odd ticks she gained (she keeps counting stuff, wincing at louder noises) she knows is ignored by the student body as “another weird thing about the Lesbo,” as Kaylee so succinctly put it.

At the same time, being a vampire is weird. 

Emma’s hearing is kicked up to an eleven. She doesn’t need to check her blood sugar or wear her insulin pump. That counting thing is becoming an annoyingly absorbing habit. She keeps underestimating her new strength and speed.

And she can smell blood. 

Walking down the hallways of James Madison High School is even harder than before, because she can hear the heartbeats all around her (and more insults than normal) and with one sniff she can point out who’s on their period and who’s injured. 

On the one hand, seeing the look on Nick’s face when she “accidentally” jabs the bruise on his ribcage with more force than she’s ever used when getting up to sharpen her pencil was an amazing experience. On the other hand, when Alyssa gets her period two weeks after her turning she’s almost driven up the wall by the scent in the band closet. 

It makes her hungry. 

Gran takes off for the weekend with Greg on a college visit, leaving Emma to her own devices. Being the teenager she is, she immediately invites her girlfriend over to stay the night. It’s only after they iron out their plans that she remembers what “staying the night” implies. 

She’s not opposed to it.

————————

The first thing Emma notices when Alyssa walks in isn’t the overnight bag slung over her shoulder or the slightly nervous smile on her face. She doesn’t see the way her hair is pulled up into a ponytail or how many steps she takes into the house before stopping (six) at first. She barely registers the faint smell of blood still hovering around her from the tail end of her period. 

Emma’s sole focus when her girlfriend arrives is how the tank top she’s wearing reveals every single inch of her neck. She can practically hear the blood coursing under her skin, rich and red and probably—

“Emma?” She shakes her head, looking up and meeting Alyssa’s eyes, which are closer (and… darker?) than before. “Are you okay? You were in your own little world.”

“Sorry, I..” She knows, but how does she word it? That for the last week she’s had an ache in her stomach for something that should gross her out? That she’s tempted to break her skin and drain her dry? That she’s scared of herself and how much she wants to… “I’m just… thirsty, I guess.”

Alyssa’s eyes soften and she takes Emma’s hands. “Are you sure it’s not a vampire thing?” She speaks low, but with the closeness and Emma’s hearing it sounds like she’s shouting.

She looks down, pressing her forehead into the crook of her neck (which only brings her closer to-). She closes her eyes as she responds. “It is a… that thing.” She wraps her arms around Alyssa’s waist, and one of Alyssa’s arms moves around her back.

She feels more than hears the hum Alyssa makes. She starts petting her hair, and Emma does her best imitation of a cat as she does so. “Have you texted… what was their name?”

“Ash. And no.”

“Well, they’ve been a vampire longer than you, so they can probably help you more than I can.” 

Emma almost controls herself enough to hold back her next response.

Almost.

“But they don’t have blood I can drink.”

The stroking of her hair pauses for a second, in time with an intake of breath and the increase of her pulse. The pulse stays high as the petting resumes. “So when you said thirsty…”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.”

The conversation falls away. They stay like that for a minute or so; Emma holding onto Alyssa, Alyssa petting Emma, shoes still on, bag still over her shoulder. Emma pulls away, though, still not meeting here eyes. “Can we go sit down?”

Alyssa responds by leading her up the stairs to her room and pulling her onto the bed.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Emma shakes her head.

“Okay. Let’s watch a movie.”

————————

Emma lasts another week before passing out in the band closet. She comes to after a few seconds and is ready to tell Alyssa she’s okay, but the look in her eyes stops her. 

“Emma, have you even tried to feed yourself?”

Swallowing, she averts her eyes. “I eat dinner with Gran and Greg-”

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.” At the shake of her head Alyssa sighs, pulling something from her bag. “I was saving this for a little later, but I guess I’ll just give it to you now.”

Emma watches, clawing hunger ignored for the moment, as Alyssa pulls out a red hat from her bag. She takes it, confused until Alyssa starts talking again. 

“So, I stole Ash’s number off of your phone last week and started talking to them about your whole situation, since you seemed so determined to suffer alone. They gave me heaps of advice, mostly about eating and what you can or should eat.” She gestures to the hat. “They said that while human blood is the go-to for tropes, it’s not the only thing you can eat to gain stuff; Adventure Time was the first show to feature another option for you: the color red.”

Emma snorts. “So, a kid’s show is the only show to have the non-deadly food option? Red dye?”

Alyssa nods, deadly serious. “I recall you crying about the finale of that kid’s show. It’ll taste like shit, but it gets you what you need with no injury.”

She’s about to argue about how stupid this whole idea is before her stomach growls, and she gives in. She brings the hat up to her mouth, letting her fangs slide out (she practiced it in the mirror before, but never in front of anyone) and biting down, not expecting anything to happen.

To her complete surprise, however, she found her mouth flooded with some sort of liquid, and she instinctively swallows it, not even bothered by the non-taste. She repeats the process, sucking until the liquid stops coming. She opens her eyes (when did she close them?) to find the once-red hat is now white. She looks over to Alyssa in surprise, but is ebem more suriprised to see her eyes blown wide open and her face a little red. 

“Babe?” Emma speaks, seemingly jolting Alyssa from… whatever overtook her (she knows what, in some small area of her brain, but she doesn’t want to acknowledge that part). “It worked.”

Alyssa takes a quick breath before trying to speak. “Yeah, it did,” she gets out, voice deeper than normal. She clears her throat, speaking normally. “There was, uh, there was one more tactic for hurt-free feeding that Ash told me.”

At her silent encouragement, Alyssa keeps talking. As hard as Emma is trying not to acknowledge anything about her new unlife, she has to admit that it’s a good idea.

Especially for a gay vampire.

————————

Gran calls her downstairs that Saturday to ask her when she needs her insulin picked up, which reminds Emma that she hasn’t told her about her vampireness yet. 

“Actually, Gran, about that…”

At the end of the conversation, both of them are sitting down at the kitchen table and neither of them know what to say. Greg, walking in, breaks the silence. “So you have more than just your nerdiness to blame your pale skin on now?”

She shoots him a look, getting a shit-eating grin in return. Gran speaks then. “Explaining why a type-1 diabetic suddenly doesn’t need insulin anymore is going to be hard, but I think we can end your prescription with enough white lies.”

“And if we buy a bunch of red stuff and you drain them dry, that means I can practice my tie-dying!”

“Or we could invest in some bulk red dye.”

As Greg and Gran brainstorm around her, Emma looks back and forth between the two with a growing feeling of absurdity. First she gets kicked out of her parents’ house and Gran takes her in. Then she gets a secret girlfriend and Gran doesn't bat an eye or tell anyone. Now she was turned into a vampire and Gran is trying to accommodate her without any questions?

That night, after Greg retreats to his room to rewatch Hairspray, Emma sits next to Gran on the couch. They sit in silence for a little bit, home renovation shows playing on the tv, while Emma finds her words. “Why didn’t you freak out when I told you what happened?”

“If I had made a big deal about it, you would have freaked out, and a panicking Emma is never good,” Gran starts. “You obviously are still coming to terms with what happened; not telling me immediately is completely understandable.”

Emma nods, leaning into Gran’s shoulder. “Thanks, Gran.”

“You’re welcome.” She smiles. “Besides, I dated a werewolf before i met your grandfather; you’re not my first exposure to the supernatural.”

“... Wait, what?”

————————

Shelby’s staring at her. 

Well, more than usual. It might just be from her heightened senses, but every time she passes Shelby in the hallway she can feel her eyes staring through her. 

After a week she can’t take it anymore. She gets Alyssa to give her a location, then goes to corner her in a secluded area. 

“Okay, Gonzales, you’ve been staring at me more than normal.” Emma crosses her arms. “Why?”

Shelby, still in workout clothes, takes a sip from her water bottle before responding. “You’re dead.”

Emma chokes on air. “I- what? No, I’m not, if I was dead I wouldn’t be talking to you.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Don’t bullshit me; your scent changed about a month ago. I won’t tell anyone,” she continues, “as long as you don’t tell anyone that I’m inhuman, too.”

Emma blinks. “You’re a…”

“Werewolf by blood, witch by upbringing.” Shelby shrugs. “With your new nose you were going to find out eventually. Might as well tell you under my own power.”

The two girls stand in silence for a moment, an unlikely camaraderie formed. Emma breaks it. “Vampire. That’s what I am.”

————————

School lets out eight days after the Shelby Talk, and with Emma’s newfound non-juniorness she finds good and bad things. One good thing is that she can stop getting up in the day time at all if she really wants to. One bad thing is that she accidentally becomes nocturnal for a week and doesn't notice until Greg comes into her room banging two pots together and recreating the “I don't get no sleep cause of y’all” vine (in the worst key possible).

Another good thing is that she can be with Alyssa for a full day without being scared of curious onlookers. A bad thing is that every time they hang out they have to not only avoid Mrs. Greene’s questions (the excuse of hanging out with Kaylee and Shelby only works so many times) but also the questions of Alyssa’s friends (the excuse of her mom can only work so many times).

A third good thing about summer is that Emma is no longer friendless (Greg’s great, but they’re cousins and live together). The… weird part is where these friends come from, and who they are. 

She drives up to the old bowling alley two weeks into her summer vacation at sunset. She’s alone; Shelby had sent her a text about coming here a couple of days before, followed by a message saying she “knows you have no plans, so come and meet me here.” While… true, Emma’s still confused; why meet at the one entertainment place that closed seven years ago? 

Turning into the parking lot, she sees Shelby sitting outside of the entrance. She parks and exits her car, looking around before walking towards her. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Shelby stands, gesturing towards the entrance. “Here’s a quick rundown of what I invited you to: the supernatural isn’t as uncommon as you think. We meet up here once a month and talk, share experiences. Emma — different from you — lives here and invites us over.”

Emma blinks. “Why does she live here?”

Shelby smiles instead of answering, walking in. Less scared, but still confused, Emma follows. 

The building is lit brighter than she expects, and she has to blink when she walks in. She looks around, taking it in. 

The old alleys are slightly deconstructed, dull and worn from years of disuse. The lights are on in certain areas, but some of them flicker, leading Emma’s eyes over to where the cantina used to be. A group of people (beings?) are sitting in a circle in mismatched furniture, looking towards the entrance. Shelby is already halfway to them, waving and yelling out a greeting. Feeling their gazes on her, Emma hurries to catch up to Shelby. 

“Everyone, this is Emma Nolan. She’s a vampire.” Shelby introduces her and she waves, feeling awkward.

Someone in a well-worn armchair pipes up. “Hey, another Emma! We’re glad to have you. I’m Nicole, she/her, and a witch.”

“Most of us are witches, actually,” the one in the loveseat across the room adds. “I’m Sig, she/her.”

“I’m Grey, he/him, and not a witch.” From one end of a couch. “I’m actually a werewolf.”

The being on the other end of the couch tacks on “I am, though! Amelia, they/them, mostly.”

“And I’m Emma, she/her.” The last voice comes from behind her, and Emma whips around in surprise. She ends up face to face with a bird-cat-thing twice her size which she swears she’s seen in little kid’s books before. “I’m not human at all. I’m a griffin.”

“Shelby mentioned you earlier,” she replies, trying not to comment on how surprised she is to be talking to a mythical creature. “This is your place?”

She nods. “I can’t exactly go and walk the streets of Indiana.”

Emma nods, feeling a tug on her arm. Shelby is dragging her into a seat. “Want anything?”

“Something red?” Shelby nods, moving off to a cabinet. 

From her new spot in the middle of the couch, Emma has people on both sides of her. Luckily, neither of them are the talkative type, but Nicole starts asking questions from her chair.

“So, New Emma, you’re a vampire. How old are you? When were you turned? Who’s your sire?”

“Uh, seventeen? Just in June, by someone named Ash.”

“A newbie, huh? Have you fed yet?”

“Well-” She pauses to catch the apple thrown at her, taking a moment to suck the red from it and see if it’s safe to come out here or not. “My girlfriend and I, during her period...”

“Wait,” Shelby from her new spot on a beanbag interrupts, “you have a girlfriend?”

Right, Shelby goes to her school. “Yeah. We’ve been dating for about seven months, but she’s not out.”

Shelby leans back, waving a hand in the air. “Relax, Nolan, I’m not gonna ask you to out her. It’s like the supernatural; you should tell who you want to on your own terms.” She unknowingly strikes a chord, and Emma can’t hold her reply back.

“So you’re saying I should have been able to say I’m a lesbian on my own terms, instead of the grapevine telling everyone?” She sees Shelby flinch, but she doesn’t stop there. “That I should have been able to say I’m a vampire to the group, instead of you?”

“That’s not what I-” She starts, stops, starts again, “Emma, I didn’t, I haven’t--”

“But you haven’t said anything to stop it, either,” she interrupts. Suddenly, she’s aware of all of the eyes on her, and her clothes feel too tight, and she’s surrounded by everyone, and she just needs to get _away_, and -- suddenly, she feels so much smaller than before, but the room feels bigger, too. She doesn’t stop to think about it; she flies from the room, not even trying to make an excuse. She exits and lands, taking a couple of deep...__

_ _Emma’s train of thought crashes off of the express rails it had been hurtling down. _ _

_ _Taking a shaky breath, she looks around. Everything is… bigger than before. She goes to push up her glasses, only to shriek and fall over when a leathery finger attached to more skin hits her in the nose. She scrambles on her back for a minute or two, wondering why exactly it’s so hard to move normally. When she finally gets up, she manages to turn around and shriek again at the giant sneaker next to her. Looking way up, she meets the gaze of someone from inside (Grey, that’s his name)._ _

_ _“Hey, can you understand me? Nod if you can.” Emma, still very much confused, nods. “Great! Language barriers with transformations always suck.” Grey crouches down, glasses slipping down his nose. He pushes them up as he shifts, leaning against the brick of the entryway. “We all aorta agreed that the werewolf that hadn’t pissed you off should come out and helpy uo through this; first transformations are fucking terrifying if you don’t have anyone to talk you through it.”_ _

_ _“What do you mean?” Is what Emma tries to say, but all that comes out is a long squeak (followed by a surprising clarity to her vision for a moment). She shuts her mouth._ _

_ _Grey smiles down at her. “Yeah, that answers my next question. Okay, long story short: you can turn into a bat. Right now, you are a bat. You panicked and transformed in there. It’s not permanent, don’t worry; it’s actually way easier to control than lycanthropy.” He shifts, settling in a little in his spot. “I’ll give you some time to process this all; squeak when you’re ready to try and turn back.”_ _

_ _————————_ _

_ _Grey helps Emma turn back, but she doesn’t want to return to the group that night. After exchanging numbers with him and promising to text him if she ever has a question about transformations, she heads home for the night._ _

_ _Another week passes, and she tentatively returns to the bowling alley after a conversation with Alyssa about all of this. (“I think you should give them another chance.”_ _

_ _“Babe, I had a panic attack that was so bad I turned into a bat.”_ _

_ _“And this time you know what to expect!”)_ _

_ _Alyssa, as usual, was right, and Emma’s surprised by how well she remembers their names. She’s slightly disappointed that Grey isn’t there (Shelby’s not there, either, but she’s less disappointed), but Nicole is quick to explain why. _ _

_ _“Around the full moon a lot of werefolk are at home, loading up on carbs and any sort of food available. The fuller they are, the less rampage-y their transformation is. They tend to meet up at the nearest 24-hour diner at sunrise the next day.”_ _

_ _Amelia nods, adding on, “I work at Applebees, and I usually get that shift. They’re great tippers.”_ _

_ _Emma, this time in a beanbag, absentmindedly sucks on some red Jolly Ranchers. “Shelby mentioned she was a werewolf by blood? Is that different from being, uh,” she flounders for the vocabulary words she just learned before ending lamely, “turned?”_ _

_ _“Well,” Sig pipes up, on the couch this time, “to make a long history lesson short, transforming burns up a lot of calories; the rampage usually came because the werefolk were so godsdamned hungry. After supernatural-adjacent scientists, with the help of witches, figured that out, werefolk just started binge eating before the full moon, and the amount of recorded werefolk attacks decreased by a crazy amount. Nowadays most werefolk are born, not turned; this makes Grey the outlier, not Shelby. It’s even more common for werefolk to also be a witch, or partially another supernatural creature; being a werefolk is a dominant trait, so it doesn’t have to be two werefolk who make more of them.” She leans back into the couch, satisfied._ _

_ _“Wow, Sig, I thought you were trying to make it short,” joked Griffin-Emma (Vampire-Emma, being the new person, was being called Other-Emma by the group, but she refuses to be the secondary Emma in her own brain), resettling her wings._ _

_ _Sig pouts. “It is shorter! Would you have rather me pull out the powerpoint?”_ _

_ _A chorus of “no” echos around the room. Emma speaks up. “Do Grey’s parents know that he’s a werewolf?”_ _

_ _The room becomes the quietest Emma has ever seen it. Looks are exchanged around the room, leaving her even more confused. “What?”_ _

_ _Apparently Amelia is chosen to speak, but they do so hesitantly. “Grey’s parents don’t know a lot of things about him.”_ _

_ _She’s even more confused, but knows when not to push a subject. “Pass me the jolly ranchers?”_ _

_ _

_ _————————_ _

_ _Summer passes quickly. Between spending time with her family, her girlfriend, and her new friends(?), Emma soon finds herself once again facing the doors of James Madison High School on the Wednesday after Labor Day. Her grip on the strap of her messenger bag tightens as she does a quick breathing exercise (that she doesn’t need, but old habits die hard)._ _

_ _When she steps through those doors, she’ll be a senior._ _

_ _She’ll have to go through a whole year of hiding her vampire-ness._ _

_ _She’ll have to go through a whole year of hiding how she feels for Alyssa._ _

_ _And now, with her cousin off at college, she won’t have any barrier between herself and the homophobic jerks who still haven’t gotten tired of making fun of her._ _

_ _Emma closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, this time focusing on all the different scents of this school. _ _

_ _Sweat. Hormones. Way too much deodorant that doesn’t work. Cleaning agents. Blood, which is a smell she’s grown to ignore. Alyssa. Dust. Fresh wax on the floor._ _

_ _Wait._ _

_ _Emma opens her eyes to find Alyssa staring at her, a respectable distance away._ _

_ _Talking distance away._ _

_ _In public._ _

_ _“Hi,” Alyssa starts, smiling slightly._ _

_ _“Uh,” she gets out, brain rebooting._ _

_ _“I just wanted to see how you were doing,” she continues, “with Greg off at college and everything.”_ _

_ _Right, the _I’m dating your cousin_ cover story they came up with when Greg came out as gay to the two of them. That finally gives Emma’s brain the kickstart it needs. “Oh, yeah, he’s already called home a couple times. He’s having fun, and maybe alcohol? Has he called you at all?” She gives herself a mental pat on the back for that one; she kept up appearances!_ _

_ _“Yeah, he did once. We’re mostly texting, though.” Alyssa winks, and Emma habitually inhales a little. She catches a whiff of… she notices the little smile playing on her girlfriend’s face. “So, ready for our senior year?”_ _

_ _Emma blinks away the scent, shrugging. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”_ _

_ _————————_ _

_ _The year passes by much too quickly, and frighteningly easily. Shelby and Alyssa tend to team up and lessen the blow of Kaylee, and by extension Nick. Emma and Alyssa meet up in the band closet still, and she and Shelby still both go to the meetups in the bowling alley. Greg insists on knowing everything about what happens in those meetups ever since she told him about how the first one ended (“I’m sorry, you got justifiably mad at Shelby and _what_?”), and after getting permission from the group, she complies through text._ _

_ _So, Emma is allowed to be surprised when her cellphone rings at three AM a week before Valentine’s Day with her cousin’s name lighting up the screen. Ignoring her normal phonecall panic for familial-concern panic, she picks up and barely gets out a greeting before she’s bombarded with words._ _

_ _“Emma I knew you weren’t asleep so I called you and also you said there were werewolves in your friend group so I figured you’re my safest bet, so anyways I just need to know if today’s the full moon? And what werewolves look like? Because I was out with friends but I broke off to get back to my dorm and I heard a whimpering from some bushes so I go ‘oh shit a dog let’s get it to its owner’ and head over, but i get there and the dog’s fucking _huge_, and I try to call it to me but it lashed out and bit my forearm? And ran off? But it was way too big to be a dog but I know Indiana has zero wolves, so please help me out here I’m panicking in my room with my roommate at his girlfriend’s place which honestly he’s bi but sadly monogamous otherwise I’d do him like have I talked to you about him yet? He’s--”_ _

_ _“Greg!” Emma cuts him off, finally. “I need you to clean and dress your… for the sake of brevity, dog bite. I’m pretty sure the full moon is close, if not tonight, but I’ll double check and text you about it. I’m gonna text Grey about this; he’s probably the best person to talk to you about this, but if it’s the full moon he probably won’t respond until midday tomorrow.” She rubs her eyes, jostling her glasses. “Just, stay calm, make sure the wound doesn’t get infected, and wait for me to text you, okay?”_ _

_ _There’s quiet on the line for a few seconds. Greg replies with a noise. “Mmhm, okay, yeah. I’m sorry if I woke Gran up, I’m gonna try and sleep, goodnight.”_ _

_ _The line hangs up, and Emma sighs before unlocking her phone. A quick google search and two texts later (one to Greg, one to Grey), she decides that the rest of the night can be filled with sleep._ _

_ _————————_ _

_ _One month later, Emma finds herself the unlucky liaison between the two boys after the next full moon until Alyssa (on the couch next to her, annoyed that movie night keeps getting interrupted) suggests that they talk to each other directly. She gives Greg Grey’s number, then puts her phone down and turns to her girlfriend. “Now, where were we?”_ _

_ _“Actually, before we start it again,” Alyssa looks down at her hands, playing with her fingers, “I was thinking. About prom.”_ _

_ _Emma can hear her heartrate increasing. “Yeah? Do you want to go? I think Greg could probably come back for it, and I can go stag.”_ _

_ _“Yeah, about that. I want to go, but… I want to go with you.” She finally looks up, meeting Emma’s eyes. “I don’t want to have to hide with you forever, and… I think I want to tell everyone.”_ _

_ _Emma tries to respond immediately, but she forgot to inhale, so all that comes out is a strangled noise._ _

_ _“Emma?”_ _

_ _“If this is your promposal, I’d like to say that it’s nothing like the ones YouTube suggests to me.”_ _

_ _Alyssa finally smiles, shoving her girlfriend’s shoulder. “You dork, you scared me for a second.”_ _

_ _“Really? You accept that I’m a vampire without a second thought, but I pause after you suggest taking your girlfriend to prom and you panic?” That earns her a pillow to her face. “Hey!”_ _

_ _Emma dislodges a pillow from her carefully constructed corner of the couch to return the attack, leading to a giggling pillow fight that lasts until Alyssa needs a breather, movie forgotten. They stop, settling back down, Emma being used as a pillow._ _

_ _“You never asked.”_ _

_ _“Huh?” Alyssa shifts._ _

_ _“You never actually asked me to prom.”_ _

_ _“Do you want another pillow to the face?”_ _

_ _“That would be hard to accomplish, considering that I’m lying on all of them.”_ _

_ _Alyssa huffs out a laugh. “Okay, fine. Emma Nolan, will you go to prom with me?”_ _

_ _“Duh.” Alyssa slaps her arm. “Ow! Okay, okay. Yes, Alyssa Greene, I will go to prom with you.”_ _

_ _————————_ _

_ _“Barry Glickman (he/they): Actor, Fairy Godmother” is printed on the card the older man gives her. Confused, Emma flips the card over to find a phone number with the words “Text me!” handwritten._ _

_ _“What the…” She does not text him. Instead, she opens the groupchat the supernatural folks added her to in April._ _

_ _**UndeadEmma:** hey y’all do fairy godmothers exist? because if they do i just got a card from one of them_ _

_ _**GreyWolf:** idk i think the witches would know more about that_ _

_ _**HekSig:** Fairy Godmothers are rare, but they do exist_ _

_ _**HekSig:** Rare enough that most of their names are documented and known, with the exception of whoever gave Cinderella her dress_ _

_ _**HekSig:** Why, who gave you their card?_ _

_ _**AmeliaBedelia:** wait, Cinderella was real_ _

_ _**FickleNicole:** amelia we talked about this  
————————_ _

_ _“Kid, you can’t stay in your closet forever.” _ _

_ _“Angie, you know she’s been out for a couple of years.”_ _

_ _“I was talking to the bat, Barry, not the know-it-all from the Feywild.”_ _

_ _Emma, in bat form, squeaks at the two adults in her room. True to Angie’s word, she’s hanging upside down in her closet. She picked up the habit of hiding there over the summer whenever she gets overwhelmed._ _

_ _Barry opens the door of the closet, upside-down face drawn in concern. “Look, bitty-bat, what they did was wrong. And, I know you don’t want help right now, but my whole _job_ as a Fairy Godmother is to help people in their most dire times.” He holds out a hand to her. “So, please come out, and let’s talk about it in human form.”_ _

_ _Emma doesn’t really want to transform again, mostly because she transformed while still in that stupid, _stupid_ dress and going back to human form would put her back in it._ _

_ _“I have ice cream,” they add._ _

_ _Maybe a human form isn’t a bad idea right now._ _

_ _————————_ _

_ _Prom (the real prom) is over, and senioritis is kicking in big time for Emma. Alyssa, however, is still going strong, even when the senior class teachers have given up on controlling them. Sadly, after one too many study dates ending how Emma wanted them too (but not how Alyssa did), Alyssa starts bringing Shelby to their study sessions. _ _

_ _It’s not as awkward as last year would have been, but Shelby complains about being a third wheel and harping on Alyssa for not telling her sooner. Even those jabs die down, soon enough, and Emma is stuck between the valedictorian and salutatorian (she’s number three, but no one cares) who both actually want to study._ _

_ _If she had to breathe, she’d sigh._ _

_ _————————_ _

_ _“So, I get to see Nick wear nothing but his underwear and run down the street screaming ‘LESBIANS ARE NEAT! LESBIANS ARE FRIENDS!’ for ten minutes because he tried to beat me at arm wrestling.”_ _

_ _“I still think using vampire strength is cheating, Emma.”_ _

_ _“Well, Shelby, I don’t see you restraining your lycanthro-strength.”_ _

_ _“Wait, she gets a strength boost outside of the full moon?”_ _

_ _“She was born part werewolf, Greg. We get sick scars, she gets strength.”_ _

_ _“Oh, that’s not fair.” Greg crosses his arms, pouting, as Grey laughs next to him. It’s the last meeting of the summer before Emma moves in to college, and everyone (behind her back) decided to throw her a small party. Most of the red decorations are now a ghastly white or pale pink, and the snacks ran out half an hour ago, but Emma’s laughing and telling stories and generally having more fun than she ever expected._ _

_ _Griffin Emma chirps, “Try having wings, Greg,” causing Amelia to spew soda from their nose._ _

_ _“That wasn’t even that funny?” Sig says, confused, as she pats Amelia’s back._ _

_ _Nicole manages through gasps of laughter, “it’s the results that matter, Sig, and the results are _hilarious_.”_ _

_ _“The results are me choking!” Amelia, recovering, snaps back playfully._ _

_ _“Kinky.”_ _

_ _“Greg!”_ _

_ _“Ow! No, not the legs, I have a swimming scholarship!”_ _

_ _“You’ll have more scars than just your bite when I’m through with you—”_ _

_ _Emma lets the conversation shift, split, merge, and wash over her, a smile playing on her lips. She has a lot of unlife to go, but for moments like these, she has to remember how bland her life was before she got bit, so long ago (was it only last June?). _ _

_ _Emma Nolan is a vampire, and she can’t wait to see what comes next for her._ _

**Author's Note:**

> ive got another fic in the works, hope you enjoyed this!


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